Planning Missile Strikes `Sobering'

Naval Officer Raised In Connecticut Coordinated Attacks On Iraq

September 07, 1996|By MARK PAZNIOKAS; Courant Staff Writer

The coordinator of the American missile attacks on Iraq was a Connecticut man who oversaw the strikes from an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, then watched the results an hour later on television.

``An hour later we could turn on the news and see the reports of the strikes,'' Sloan said Friday in a satellite telephone interview from the USS Carl Vinson. ``It was very sobering.''

Sloan, 35, who grew up in Manchester and East Hartford and graduated from East Catholic High School in 1979, was the strike operations officer for the 44 Tomahawks launched Tuesday in two attacks.

As operations officer, he coordinated the strikes for Rear Adm. Edward Moore Jr., the commander of Cruiser Destroyer Group Three, which left its home port of Alameda, Calif., for the gulf in May.

``My specific job was to position ships for missile strikes and coordinate the flights of missiles over the water,'' said Sloan, who commanded a 10-person team that coordinated the attacks and ``deconflicted the missiles.''

``Deconflicted'' is Navy jargon for making sure missile routes into Iraq did not cross any flight paths or go over oil-well platforms, populated islands or congested shipping lanes, in case a missile should fail and crash.

Sloan joined the Navy 13 years ago after graduating from Tulane University. He lives in a San Diego suburb with his wife, Mary, and two daughters, but his parents still live in Connecticut. He is the son of Edward Sloan of East Granby and Penny Brandt of Manchester.

Sloan's job relies heavily on computers, which plot attacks carried out with missiles fired from other ships and planes. The nuclear-powered Carl Vinson was the command ship, but it did not fire a single missile.

Tomahawk missiles are 20 feet long and fly about 550 mph, following a pre-programmed route for as far as 500 miles. They cost about $1.1 million each. U.S. forces launched 27 missiles early Tuesday, then followed up with 17 more after learning that not all targets had been destroyed.

The Carl Vinson is a floating city of 5,000 people, bristling with the latest sophisticated electronic gear, but Sloan's first progress reports on the attacks came from a source available to his parents and sisters in Connecticut -- CNN.

``Aboard the carrier, we do receive CNN International,'' Sloan said. ``Once out of the radar range of the ships, we can't monitor the missiles very well, if at all. Perhaps one of the best sources is just turn on CNN.''

Between the two launches, Sloan said, he was able to reflect on the fact that people had been killed.

``I have a lot of pride to be carrying out our national policy, but it's somewhat sobering to think there are folks on the other end to be receiving the business end of this powerful weapon.''

As he spoke Friday, the Carl Vinson was in the Persian Gulf, about 30 miles off the coast of Iran. He had finished standing his 5-10 p.m. watch as tactical action officer for the task force.

With the missile strikes over, the task force had returned to its job of enforcing economic sanctions against Iraq, boarding ships to ensure that no one was transporting prohibited materials.